Imaginary_Wolf_8698

t1_jdnio3u wrote

He was just building on the science of the time and came up with it theoretically. They already had a good understanding of molecular bonds, how to determine different elements in molecules, and a pretty good concept of what made molecules more stable. He just assumed the product would be the most stable form and worked out on paper what that structure would be with HBr and an alkene and we later confirmed it. I don’t think it was really “lucky”, it was right because he formulated it based on what other scientists before had experimentally confirmed about molecular structure and organic chemistry.

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